


The Raising

by Alixtii



Series: Watcher!verse [42]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Bechdel Fix, Bechdel Pass, Bisexual Character, Community: femslash_minis, F/F, Female Protagonist, Mirrors, Nudity, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Post-Canon, Submission, Threats, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-14
Updated: 2005-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-03 09:03:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alixtii/pseuds/Alixtii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darla gets resurrected. Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Raising

**Author's Note:**

  * For [furblewig](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=furblewig).



> **Timeline/Continuity:** Takes place in the year 2017.   
> **A/N:** Contains dialogue from _Angel_ 1x22, "To Shanshu in L.A." taken from the [Buffyverse Dialogue Database](http://vrya.net/bdb/index.php). Translation found on the BDDb from the [Buffy Shooting Script Website](http://www.mustreadtv.com/buffyscripts).

Dawn turned to her niece, uncertainty on her face. “You sure you can do this, Madelyn?”

The nine-year-old girl looked distinctly annoyed, an expression which was reflected in the many mirrors which lined the room. “You keep asking me that, Aunt Dawn. I can do it.”

Dawn nodded, pursing her lips slightly. “I know,” she said at last. “It’s just that these magicks are pretty dark.”

Madelyn Summers put her hands on her waste. “Althanea said it doesn’t work that way, exactly. That sometimes darkness is necessary for the equilibrium.” A voice trained in pronouncing Latin didn’t even stumble over the difficult word. “She said that you of all people should know that. What did she mean by that?”

Dawn didn’t answer. Yes, sometimes darkness was necessary. But that was a Watcher’s job, doing what needed to be done so that her Slayer wouldn’t be corrupted by power. Not that Madelyn was a Slayer, but the principle was the same--if anything it was more important, as Dawn had seen too many times what damage could be done by Madelyn's powers when uncontrolled. If there were any way Dawn could take the burden on herself, spare the little girl the inevitable karmic feedback, she would.

But she couldn’t. And sometimes it was a Watcher’s job to send others into battle, watch them risk their lives or worse while one directed from safety.

Dawn turned to Andrew, who had been blissfully silent the entire conversation. “You ready?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s begin the summoning.”

Andrew began to chant. “This hallowed ground is made ready. His time is at hand. For as it is written he of pure darkness shall come into the light.”

And, in the center of the summoning circle, a demon appeared. “You have the Scroll of Aberjian?”

Dawn nodded, gesturing to the scroll in Madelyn’s hands. The demon nodded and stepped toward the young girl, before being thrown back as he came into contact with the bounds of the warded spell circle.

“You would deny me my freedom?”

“You’re evil,” Dawn said simply. “We don’t trust you. You coöperate, and we’ll just send you back to whatever hell dimension you came from. Otherwise, we kill you.”

The demon pulled himself to full stature. “You believe you can kill Vocah, warrior of the underworld?”

“Angel did it,” Dawn answered simply. “And look into this girl’s eyes and tell me what you see.”

Vocah paused, as he examined Madelyn. “Power,” he said at last. “This girl has great power.”

Dawn nodded. “So shall we start the ritual?”

“Very well,” Vocah answered, stepping back to the center of the circle. “She knows the spell?”

Madelyn nodded, seriously, and opened the Scroll of Aberjian. “We have prepared a holy place in the darkness and anointed it with oil,” she read. “We have taken of the blood of the living and gathered together the living dead.”

Vocah smiled and began his part of the ritual. “As it was written they shall prepare the way and the very gates of hell shall open. That which is above shall tremble for that which is below shall arise. And the world shall know the beast and the beast shall know the world.”

Dawn could feel the Earth itself tremble with the power of the ritual. Vocah continued, “Five are without breath.”

Madelyn responded. “Yet they live.” Her voice was strong, confident, almost defiant.

“Five are without time,” Vocah said.

“Yet they live,” Madelyn repeated.

“Five are without soul.”

“Yet they live.”

Dawn watched as the girl and the demon wove the spell. Would everything go all right?

“Five are without sun.”

“Yet they live.”

“Five are dead.”

“Yet they live.”

There was a pause, in which Dawn nodded, imperceptibly. Madelyn nodded back, her gesture just as subtle, then turned her gaze back to Vocah. An expression of concentration passed over her features, just as the demon erupted in flames. “We had an agreement!” Vocah roared.

Dawn shrugged. “I lied,” she said.

“Abjure,” Madelyn said, her voice a whisper, and Vocah was gone, the circle empty. She turned back to the Scroll and began to read. “_Et illi quinque sacrificum,_” she read, “_est et illi que est mortuus vivet._” And the five shall be a sacrifice, and the one who is dead shall live.

“_Dum vita et mors non duas res sed unas sunt,_” Madelyn continued. Even as life and death are not two things but one. “_In tenebris lux est, in luge tenebrae sunt. Serge!_” In darkness is the light, in light is the darkness. Arise!

"_Serge! Serge! Serge!_"

And the raising was complete. In the center of the mirror-lined room, completely naked, was the woman who in death had been known as Darla.

* * * *

Darla lay, cowering, in the center of summoning circle, looking in fear at the three figures who surrounded her, and the infinitude of reflections of her naked body which stared back at her from the room’s mirrored walls.

Cautiously, Madelyn stepped into the summoning circle and placed her hand over Darla’s face, her fingertips lightly touching what suspiciously reminded Dawn of Star Trek _katra_ points. “_Souvenez_,” the girl said, then stepped back out of the circle.

“Thank you, Madelyn,” Dawn said. “You too, Andrew. You can leave now.” They quickly exited, leaving Dawn alone with the naked woman.

“Hello, Darla,” Dawn said, keeping her voice gentle for the moment. “Do you know who I am?”

The woman shook her head.

“I’m Dawn Summers. Do you know what that means?”

“Her. The Slayer. You’re her sister.”

“My sister was _a_ Slayer,” Dawn corrected. “Things have changed while you were dead, Darla. There’s no longer just one girl in a generation with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires. There are hundreds. Any single girl is expendable, easily defeated by her sister Slayers. Now the true power lies with the woman who commands the Slayers. With me.”

“You’re a Watcher.”

“No,” corrected Dawn. “I’m _the_ Watcher.” She paused. “I know you may be confused. How much do you remember?”

“Everything,” the woman gasped. “Wolfram and Hart. Angelus. Our child.”

“And do you remember the people you killed, Darla?” Dawn asked, stepping forward and letting her voice grow colder. “The men, the women, the children? Do you remember the monsters you created? Angel? Elizabeth? James? Penn? Drusilla? Spike? Do you remember serving the Master, trying to bring hell to Earth? _Do you remember attacking my mother?_”

Dawn grabbed Darla by her hair, pulled the woman to her feet. Darla tried to resist, lashing out, but Dawn quickly twisted Darla’s arm behind her back.

“Don’t be a fool,” said Dawn. “You’re used to having demon strength and agility, to using your mouth as a weapon. All your instincts are wrong in a human body. Whereas I’m precisely trained to all my strengths and weaknesses.”

She dragged the woman over to one of the mirrored walls. “Look in the mirror, Darla,” she commanded. When the woman tried to look away, Dawn pulled her hair, hard, forcing her head up. Reluctantly, Darla stared into her eyes.

“That’s your face, Darla,” Dawn said. “It’s the face of the monster which did all those things. And now you have to look into the mirror and see your face and remember.” She let go of Darla, turning away from the woman but still watching her in the mirrors.

“Why am I here?” Darla asked. “Why’d you bring me back?”

Dawn smiled, but in the mirror she could see how absent of mirth the smile was. “Because we need you, Darla. The Order of Aurelius is fragmented, destroyed. The knowledge they once possessed has passed into oblivion. And yet the Tradescan Codex contains a reference to ‘the living blood of Aurelius.’ No one knows what it means. We need you to remember what once was.”

“Why not go to Angel?” The hatred in Darla’s voice was palpable, but so was the desperation.

“Angel is gone. As are Spike and Drusilla. We’ve been unable to locate them ever since a fateful night thirteen years ago. We don’t even know if they are still alive—well, undead. But you, we knew about you. You were dead. So you were available.”

“That’s what this is about? Information?”

“Yes and no,” answered Dawn. “For us, it’s about information, It’s about you using your abilities and knowledge for the good of the Watcher’s Council. It’s about having one more skilled operative in the field.” Dawn paused. “But for you, Darla, it’s about atonement.”

Darla laughed. “Now you sound like him.”

“You have a choice. I’m sure Angel told you that. You always have a choice. But I doubt he put the choice in such a clear perspective as I’m going to do.

“I can throw you into a cell, naked, where you subsist for months, insane, until you finally die of syphilis. Or you can work for us. You can begin your atonement. You can help the hopeless and begin to make up for what you did during your unlife. Our best healers will purge you of your disease.”

Darla stood in the center of the mirrored room for a moment, silent. Finally, she whispered, “Let me help.”

And Dawn led the woman who had once been the vampire Darla out of the Temple of Janus and into the moonlight of the English night.

**Author's Note:**

> [LJ/DW Comments](http://alixtii.dreamwidth.org/8310.html#comments)


End file.
